Many teachers have known of (or been members of) departments in which all of the potentially successful chairs--after having proven themselves by running subunits or graduate programs--have decided to devote themselves solely to research or teaching, and to leave department administration to whoever is willing to do it or whoever can be talked…

Changes in the status of the British "chair" or professorship in the twentieth century are examined, with focus on the types of changes, the reasons for them, and the administrative, educational, and intellectual results. (MSE)

Reflects on being selected as the first female head of the English department. Discusses the selection process (done at a poker game), women's academic advancement, power, and job related responsibilities. (EL)

Describes dividing up the responsibilities of the department chairperson among senior members of the department, then reconsiders the profession and the state of the humanities. Discusses views advocating "excellence," cultural literacy, great books, and a core curriculum in the humanities. Identifies political tasks and continued…

Describes the art of effective English departmental administration in a difficult time of budget constraints, calls for accountability, and intellectual turbulence. Considers the effect on departmental management of sustained scholarly interest in oppositional stances, powerlessness, and marginality. (HB)

Focuses on the department chair's use of power and concludes that abdicating the power that accompanies this position is tantamount to abdicating the position. (PD)

The academic department is viewed as a form of cartel, a model of monopolistic behavior characterized by control over a particular differentiated product. The development and operation of this academic cartel is explored. (MSE)

Discusses the role of the teacher as authority in the classroom. Questions whether an assertive teacher can be understood as anything less than an abuser of students. Considers the place of the text in four classroom scenarios with regard to these questions of authority. (HB)

Department chairs occupy what is arguably one of the most important administrative spots in a higher education institution. As a group, they set the academic tone of the institution and greatly facilitate or hinder the accomplishment of its mission. The various types of department chairs are described: hopeful, survivors, transient, and…

The ways in which academic departments and professional associations limit academic freedom are examined. Obstacles to academic freedom can begin with the appointment process, and include peer review, departmental coherence, preaccepted constraints of academic employment, posttenure security, and specialization. (MSE)

Communication among teaching assistants can be as complicated as communication among full time faculty members, so that power relationships influence the rhetoric they use when they talk about being students, teachers, and professionals. Analysis of the political dimensions of teaching assistant interaction in the English department at the…

Describes four major dimensions that distinguish ways that different state education agencies (SEAs) relate to school districts and offers a typology of SEAs based on these dimensions. Argues that only a few SEAs are capable of fostering substantial and widespread improvements. (CMG)

Argues for a change in research priorities and a focus on power relationships in the definition of problems. Presents a case study analyzing a failed attempt by a dean of a school of engineering to enlist communication consultants to improve teaching in a department of Computer Engineering. (SR)

An academic department meeting is described as having an unobtrusive metamorphosis as it was changed from the traditional collegial participatory style of the reluctant, temporary, quasi-administrator chair-scholar to the autocrat who uses merit pay to reward the loyal. (MLW)

Examines the dilemmas of mid-career feminist professors, including: escalating demands on their time; pressures of work and family; high casualty rates among women hired; friction between generations and among feminists; and doubts about what professionalism means to the collective participants in the feminist venture. Discusses strains of this…